哈勃望远镜

Ed Weiler: The Hubble has discovered things that we could never have anticipated. That is, it’s literally changed our view of the universe.

爱德华．威勒：哈勃望远镜带来的新发现是我们未曾想过的。它给我们带来了观测宇宙的全新视角。

You’re listening to NASA astrophysicist Edward Weiler, chief scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope from 1979 to 1998. April 2010 marks its 20th anniversary of launch.

您正在收听到的是美国国家航空航天局天体物理学家爱德华．威勒的讲话。威勒于1979~1998年间担任哈勃空间望远镜首席科学家。到今年4月，哈勃望远镜已发射升空20年。

Ed Weiler: I must say uh, after we launched it and found out that we had an optical problem, I didn’t think we’d be here today 20 years later, talking about the great successes that Hubble has achieved.

爱德华．威勒：其实当初我们发射哈勃望远镜不久就发现它有光学问题。没想到20年后的今天，我还有机会和你谈论它的辉煌成就。

Weiler said that Hubble has taken images of the universe that are ten times clearer than any ever produced by telescopes on the ground.

威勒说，哈勃望远镜比地基望远镜观测到的空间影像清晰10倍。

Ed Weiler: It’s like we’ve been near-sighted for the whole history of humankind. And we suddenly put on our glasses and have 20-20 vision on the universe. So we’ve seen, literally seen things we’ve never seen before, as nearby as pictures of, you know, our planets, to stars in our own galaxy, to other galaxies, and almost back to the very beginning of time.

爱德华．威勒：整个人类历史上，我们对宇宙的观测处在一种近视的状态，哈勃望远镜就像一副眼镜，它使我们恢复了最好的视力，看清以前未曾看见的东西。从此我们得以观测行星，银河系，河外星系，乃至宇宙起源时的状态。

The Hubble was refitted with new instruments in 2009. EarthSky asked Dr. Weiler what he expects from it in the years to come.

2009年哈勃望远镜经过了一次维修，部分仪器得到更换。此后它将给人类带来什么样的新发现呢？记者就这一问题采访了威勒博士。

Ed Weiler: You know, when you’ve got something this powerful, and a universe that’s not quite infinite but almost infinite, I’m not gonna make any predictions about what we’re gonna discover because by definition.

爱德华．威勒：宇宙并非无限却近乎无穷，人类掌握了如此强大的工具来探索它。我不会做任何关于宇宙新发现的预测，因为发现本身就是对未知事物的探索。